Cited-by overview

Crossref members can retrieve metadata records of publications that cite their content. Our cited-by service enables our members to display cited-by links in the primary content that they publish.  

Cited-by linking process:

1. Publisher A registers DOI 10.1234/X for article X with the following metadata:

   Journal= "Good Science", author="John Smith", volume="21", first page="100" year="2007"

2. Publisher B deposits metadata for article Y and assigns it DOI 10.5678/Y. The deposited references for article Y include the following:
   
   <citation_list>
    <citation key="reference to article X">
         <author>Smith</author>
         <journal_title>Good Science</journal_title>
         <cYear>2007</cYear>
         <first_page>100</first_page>
         <volume>21</volume>
     </citation>
</citation_list>
    
3. The Crossref system establishes a cited-by relationship between article X and Y
4. Publisher A later sends a query asking who 'cites' article X and is given the DOI for article Y and its metadata.

Currently only the publisher who owns an item may ask for the cited-by data. So in the above example publisher C could not inquire about the cited-by relationship of article X or Y. Obviously the order of events may differ than this simple example shows, for example step #2 could occur before step #1. The Crossref system is setup to handle this by 'remembering' the citation in article Y and will establish the relationship whenever article X is ultimately deposited.

Steps for cited-by linking participation:

1. Deposit references: References can be submitted as part of a metadata deposit or as a reference-only deposit. See adding references to your metadata record for details.
2. Query for cited-by links:cited-by matches can be retrieved via XML and HTTP querying. See retrieving cited-by matches for details.
3. Once retrieved, cited-by links should be included on DOI landing pages.
    

   Response page (from https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/1/1/006)